Commissioners publicly urge Mesa County residents to wear masks

The unchecked community spread of Coronavirus, high number of hospitalizations and rising deaths from Covid-19 in the county has led the Mesa County Commissioners to finally issue a press release Nov. 13 urging all Mesa County residents to wear masks whenever they patronize local businesses, avoid close contact with others and avoid indoor gatherings. The release is headlined “Commissioners encourage community members to wear a mask.”

The Commissioners are now putting their support behind an all-out effort to raise awareness of the public health emergency the virus is causing in our community, get people to take the situation seriously, keep local businesses afloat and help our area avoid more mandatory closures.

Mesa County Commissioners John Justman, Rose Pugliese and Scott McInnis all urge Mesa County residents to wear masks at all times when patronizing local businesses.

Here is the Commissioners’ statement:

“We urge residents not to ignore our responsibility as individuals and as a community to keep our families, friends, and employees healthy and our economy running,” said Scott McInnis, Chairman of the Board of Mesa County Commissioners. “The increase in cases can be managed if we all do our part, right now, what we need is for our community to show solidarity by doing the right thing: using common sense, washing hands, wearing a mask, and avoiding the three Cs.”

Mesa County Public Health encourages you to protect yourself and others from the spread of COVID-19 by avoiding the three Cs:

• Close contact settings such as close range conversations
• Confined and enclosed spaces with poor ventilation
• Crowds and places with many people nearby

“This is a call for action,” added Chairman McInnis. “Let’s work through this together to keep Mesa County open.” 

Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce President Diane Schwenke, the first public figure to take a firm stand urging the public to take the Coronavirus seriously, saying we all need to “Wear a damn mask” to help protect local businesses.

The release signals a change from the commissioners’ previous timid approach of letting the Mesa County Public Health Department try  to battle the Coronavirus on its own and not reinforcing public health messaging about how to control the virus. It also comes after Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Diane Schwenke got a major backbone and told the public to “wear your damn mask and do the right thing” to help keep local businesses open.